A’s late rally can’t overcome Gomes’ early slam off Milone

Saturday’s Red Sox grand slam came from a onetime Oakland favorite: Jonny Gomes belted the first pitch he got from Tommy Milone out to left in the first inning.

Oakland Athletics v Boston Red Sox

Tommy Milone watches as Jonny Gomes #5 of the Boston Red Sox rounds the bases after his grand slam in the first inning against the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park on May 3, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

“Just from playing with the A’s, knowing their mentality is to pound the strike zone, caused me to swing at every single pitch today,” Gomes said of his approach vs. Milone.

Just that quick, it was over, despite a late A’s rally. Boston collected two more homers off Milone, and Jon Lester utterly baffled the A’s in the Red Sox’s 6-3 victory at Fenway Park. Lester struck out a career-high 15 in eight innings, and he faced just two over the minimum.

“I thought he had great command of all his pitches, he executed and didn’t make any mistakes today,” said A’s shortstop Jed Lowrie, a onetime Boston player. “His velocity was up again Much as I don’t like to say it, that was pretty impressive.”

A’s hitters weren’t overly enamored with the strike zone Lester got.

“How many punchouts did we have? 15? I think that means we were pretty frustrated with it,” third baseman Josh Donaldson said, saying a lot of A’s players didn’t think the backdoor cutter Lester was throwing was a strike. “That being said, he still had to throw it there. He did a good job. Every batter, it seemed like strike one.”

The A’s were coming off a series in Texas in which they’d scored 25 runs, but Boston’s two starters, Lester and Friday starter Clay Buchholz, have held them to one run in 14 1/3 innings.

Oakland’s lone hit off Lester was a bloop single by Craig Gentry in the third. Gentry was the only A’s player to make it past first; he stole second, his 17th steal in his past 17 attempts dating back to last season.

The A’s avoided being shut out by jumping on Chris Capuano when he took over in the ninth. Nick Punto doubled, Coco Crisp singled him to third and Lowrie ripped a double to left to send Punto in and end a string of 14 innings without a run. Crisp scored on an error by left fielder Gomes.

After Donaldson was hit by a pitch and Koji Uehara walked Yoenis Cespedes to load the bases, Derek Norris hit a tapper to the mound. Uehara threw home to get Lowrie – but catcher David Ross’ throw to first trying to complete the double play was wild, and Donaldson came in to score. Alberto Callaspo then struck out and pinch hitter Brandon Moss lined out to right to end the game.

“It’s easy to cash it in when you’ve struck out 15 times in eight innings, and haven’t had too many good swings,” Melvin said. “To get those kind of at-bats in the ninth inning, that’s good, that should help leading into tomorrow.”

All of Boston’s runs scored on home runs. Milone gave up a homer on an 0-2 pitch to David Ortiz in the third, and No. 9 hitter Ross added a solo shot in the fourth.

“I’ve got to do a better job of throwing more quality strikes,” said Milone, who felt he left too many pitches up.

Milone is winless in five starts this season, and like No. 4 starter Dan Straily, his ERA is now over 5.00, at 5.86.

“He’s gotten off to slow starts, and that’s not who he is,” Melvin said of Milone’s season so far. “He’s a command guy and he’s had a few more walks and gotten behind more than we’re used to seeing.”

Oakland is 2-9 overall in games in which Straily and Milone start, and the two are responsible for 36 of the 93 earned runs given up by the A’s this season.

Subtract Straily and Milone’s numbers, and the A’s pitching staff has an ERA of 2.38.

“They certainly haven’t been as productive as the front three, but you look at any team and the back end is not going to be as strong as the front end,” Melvin said.

Before Saturday, Milone had allowed just one homer all season.

The A’s bit of brightness Saturday came from the bullpen (Dan Otero, Luke Gregerson, Sean Doolittle), which provided four scoreless innings of work and retired all 12 batters faced. Melvin said everyone should be available for the series finale.

According to stats-man extraordinaire David Feldman, Lester’s 15 strikeouts were the most ever by a Red Sox pitcher against the A’s in the long histories of the franchises. Lester’s 15 Ks were also the most ever by a Red Sox left-hander in a nine-inning game.

“I’ve seen every left-hander in the game for a while, and he’s climbing that ladder,” said the right-handed hitting Gomes. “He’s getting up there with the (top) lefties who have played this game. And he’s just now scratching the surface of his career, he’s just getting ready to take off.”